Looking for feedback on VA (US) / discharged decades ago

I have been out of the military since 1969. I signed up at VA in 2010. Now rated at 90% disability, none is due to hearing loss - not enough to be rated. However, I have some hearing loss and, I get new HAs every 3 years as the VA exams reveal loss.

I was a radioman in the Coast Guard until the mid 70’s. I’ve been wearing HAs for the last 10 years. Finally went to the VA last year. 90 days later I was awarded a 90% disability for hearing loss. File a claim. I appreciate the monthly check, but having them pay for my aids is fantastic.

Did you file for healthcare or a disability rating?

Disability rating. Not so much worried about healt care, at least not at this point.

I went in for medical help, I was unemployed and needed my BP medication. I was accepted for medical help the same day. Then a few days later I got a complete physical including hearing exam and so started my process of getting hearing aids then after 7 years disability payments. Then this last November I got a huge bump in disability. The precess now is much easier than when I was needing hearing aids.

The healthcare side is where you will get aids, rx, etc… disability will get you a check and healthcare if you don’t qualify otherwise.

If the aids are your priority you need to file for healthcare before worrying about a claim. A claim can take a long time to wind its way through the system and is not a guarantee. You will probably be scheduled for a C&P examination where they will do some testing and asking of questions about what you did while in the service. They have a list of all the MOS’s and which ones that have a high, med or low probability of causing hearing loss. I know things have changed for the better lately but it’s only been a little over two years since I went thru this circus. I literally took me years of back and forth before a judge stepped in and had to tell the VA to pay me what I was owed.

If they roll tinnitus into a hearing loss claim more vets will get screwed than helped. It is very hard with the current claim process to get anything on a hearing loss claim. Much easier to get the tinnitus claim approved. VA Hearing Loss Calculator and Ratings Guide9

I’ve also included a link to the proposed changes

https://www.regulations.gov/document/VA-2022-VBA-0009-00013

I am at 50% disabled just on my hearing loss. And if I do that test I would not qualify that high, there are other factors that can be figured in too, like the fact of depression due to hearing loss and in my case that my hearing loss has increased my blood pressure issues. It all depends on if you are fully using the VA health care system and you get the proper evaluations from your audiologist, and medical professionals in the claim that has been opened.

I understand what you are saying but having went through this system just two years ago I can give a little insight. First of all “fully using the VA healthcare system” has nothing to do with it for those of us that didn’t have it before filing a claim! I became pretty good at doing my own research and found the VA gives nothing that one does not expressly request. I did all my own claim work without using a VSO only because I was unimpressed with everyone of them that I met. Using my own research I was able to finally end up with two separate 100% ratings one for cardiovascular disease and one for Meniere’s which included a lot of auditory research. In the majority of cases you would need to file separate claims for depression and blood pressure problems as secondary conditions to an already approved hearing loss claim. Technically the C&P examiner could find these during their examination and bring it to the VA’s attention under their duty to assist but, that rarely happens.

Folks are making it way more complicated then it needs to be especially these days.

Not necessarily. I initially applied for health benefits and was turned down because I supposedly made too much money! The patient advocate at the hospital said the quickest way was for me to file a claim for hearing loss/tinnitus. The advocate was correct. Normally filing for healthcare benefits would be the quickest, if you get approved. If you don’t it’s just an exercise in futility.

Wrong… if you qualified other then because of income you would you have put a group that requires co-pays.

Just because you say wrong, doesn’t make it true. I’m telling you exactly what happened. I was declined VA health benefits several years ago due to my income and was not offered a co-pay program. Now maybe I should have been offered the co-pay but I wasn’t. I retired after serving 34+ yrs.